Making final plans for Paris, buying in a stack of film, making sure I’ve got what I need. One regular problem – what do I do about my tripod?
A strong, carbon fibre tripod but weighty all the same and long even closed. It just fits sat diagonally in my largest suitcase but the combination of tripod and heavy head risks tipping the weight over except on the most generous of airlines. Even going by Eurostar as we are luggage needs to be minimised where possible.
It’s not that I’ve failed to try alternatives.
The dslr gorilla pod doesn’t cope well with anything heavier than a basic small dslr with kit lens, plus it needs something stable for it to stand/cling to.
Small cheap travel tripod, which was OK but again failed to cope with heavy lenses.
The gorilla pod cushion, which was such a waste of time I took it straight back to the shop. A lightweight dslr simply toppled the weighted cushion over.
Trip after trip overseas has been a compromise based on not having a decent support.
Thinking it through I decided that a sturdy goodbquality monopod might be the best compromise, perhaps with a cheap travel tripod if I could find one.
A fair bit of searching later showed that web travel tripods are relatively long (some only a couple of centimetres shorter than my existing tripod. They all had quite low weight support, which would be a problem for either the Mamiya or the Canon 40D.
I’d almost given up when I came across a travel monopod, built in sections, that also converted into a tripod (of a kind). The “Trekpod Go!” is capable of supporting up to 9lbs, which should be plenty for me. It also converts into a hiking pole so it has the height that has been one of the compromises of other options.
It arrived yesterday and is very neat. It comes in it’s own carrycase and I can’t believe how light it is! I’ll hopefully give it a brief workout this weekend to see how it fares.
